OVER-REACHES. 81 



more to their antiseptic influence than to their effect in stimiilatin<^ 

 the circulation. It is manifest that considerations of work will 

 generalily liave their weight when deciding as to the remedy. For 

 instance, if we are anxious not to put on the sick list a horse which 

 is suffering from a recently inflicted contusion on the withers, 

 owing to an ill-fitting saddle, we would naturally be inclined to try 

 the effect of friction with spirits, rather than that of an agent which 

 would more or less blister the skin. 



If pus forms, we should give it vent with the knife, and should 

 treat the injury as an open abscess. Bathing and fomenting 

 the part with warm water should not as a rule be employed in the 

 early stages of contusions; as these operations encourage the for- 

 mation of pus. 



We have familiar instances of contusions in enlarged knees, and 

 bumps on shins and fetlocks from knocks when jumping timber out 

 hunting ; in swollen withers from pressure of the gullet plate of the 

 saddle ; in capped hocks from kicking ; and in capped elbows from 

 pressure of the heels of the shoes. It is evident that when removal 

 of the cause is possible, it is the best treatment. 



OYer-reaches. 



An over-reach is a wound or bruise caused by a hind shoe or hind 

 hoof striking a fore leg. In the shod horse, it is generally inflicted 

 by the inrer edge of the toe of the hind shoe; and the wound will 

 then, as a rule, take the form of a flap. In exceptional cases, par- 

 ticularly when leaping, it may be made by the front part of the toe 

 of the shoe, in which event, it will almost always occur above the 

 fetlock. 



The seat of injury is usually (a) on the soft horn just above the 

 heels ; (b) on the coronet a little in front of the heels, that is to say, 

 on the rear portion of the inside or outside quarter; or (c) on the 

 back tendons. 



If we study the illustrations in the chapter on the paces in " Points 

 of the Horse," w^e shall see that in the canter or gallop an over-reach 

 can occur, under ordinary conditions, only on the leading fore leg. 

 In the leap, also, this leg, as shown in the same book, is far more 

 liable to this injury than the non-leading leg ; as, in almost all 

 cases, it is the one which, on landing, is the first to be brought 

 down, and which has to bear the whole weight of the body, until 

 the other fore leg is carried beyond it and placed on the ground. 

 The walk and the amble are the paces at which the horse is, mani- 

 festly, least liable to over-reach. In the trot, both fore legs are 

 equally liable to injury from a hind one. Unless in the case of a 

 horse being thrown off his balance, the hind foot which inflicts the 



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